Poems
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Gowk
By Simon ArmitageOne day I had no soul and the next
I did, like a cuckoo’s egg, so
then I was lumped with this baby ego
hatching out of the heart’s nest, -
a song you can’t unsing
By Lucy Nortonsame colour as ruin
as in take them from home
as in run songline to dust
same colour as ochre -
Circular Breathing
By Gabrielle Journey JonesBreathe in truth.
Simultaneously
Breathe out loss.
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you can start anywhere, you’ll still hit all the service stations
By Hasib Houranithe laptop bag is red, i got it for free from a friend who got it for free. new things are not all that common, i suppose. my neighbours speak portuguese, the calathea loses another leaf. the heatwave runs like an old fridge, the old fridge is mostly empty, droning.
we watch the tennis. how fast is that little green blur? could whip me interstate … -
cycle
By Dominic Guerrerain a year that I thought would bring clarity and resolve
has only begun with pain, grief and torment
the cycle of years continues
the cycles continue -
sometimes feels day and sometimes feels night
By Andrew Galan, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsTrapped in this cement and brick and gypsum and nylon work
not compressed unmoving but walking and walking and walking
finding repetition or transient newness at corners but no exit
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A Letter to my Mother at Immigration
By Lang LeavYou will make a life here,
like a wave carving out
the side of a rock.
You will make fossils of your memories -
Safe Way
By Kirli SaundersWith love and respect to the Saltwater Women on the East Coast Whale Songline for all times.
Aunty wave them safe way in
Nuenonne, Paredareme, Pyemmairrener waters, -
Where have all the bad boys gone?
By Patrick LentonI didn’t know who i was when i was a teenager -
a long gangle, awkward loping sack of bones -
but i knew what i wasn’t allowed to be
i was not allowed to be a bad boy or a naughty girl -
Let that Black lady breathe!
By Chika IkogweI’m a woman
I’m a Black woman
I’m a dark skinned Black woman
And often times, I feel like people are saying -
I Fell
By Heather MitchellI cannot say I knew him
nor did he know me
yet somehow in the silence
between the siren and the stillness -
Takayna; Milaythina Ningi
By Theresa SaintyTAKAYNA; MILAYTHINA NINGI
(Takayna; Mother Country)
Nara Takayna; ngini paywuta
Wurangkili mulapana-nara nuritinga tunapri -
Writers Block
By Rob WatersWinds rush through half clipped spaces; they whistle in the dark through windows neither closed nor open.
The tin roof rattles; shaking just beyond that point that catches those night winds rushing.
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bird around my neck
By Aries M. Gacutanwhere is my heart? —rotting at the bottom of the pacific ocean
hurled out the side of the plane
because i didn’t have the cash.
and my mouth, full -
What has been said by many and has often been said
By Pascalle Burton, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lipsafter Cicero’s first and second speeches on the Agrarian Law
I
stirring up trouble -
An Heirloom of Love
By Adrian Mouhajer, Princess Arinola Adegbiteafter bell hooks
Here on my table, we share the memory of our countries,
centuries of recipes stitched into the strands of my hair, -
Willow
By Juran AdamsWritten by Juran Timu-Adams
Verse 2 written by Jack McDonald
Maori verse written by Sjionel Timu
I used to try and move mountains -
With Grace
By James ColleyThis Is Not A Poem
I am in love with a girl
who does not understand the treachery of images -
Developments
By Ella JefferyThat summer everything smacked
of tax write-off—men came to unslump
the sunstruck fence, rolled tarp-grey
carpet down the hall, but left -
For Grandad
By Phoebe GrainerOld cowboy hat.
We were laughing
Us mob
You telling us story.
